Global pension statistics

Pension fund assets in the OECD area decline in 2018

31/05/2019 - Preliminary data for 2018 show that assets in pension funds amounted to USD 27.6 trillion in the OECD area, close to 4% lower than in 2017, according to OECD's Pension Funds in Figures. Calculated in national currencies, pension fund assets declined in 12 out of 34 reporting OECD countries, including some of the largest pension markets: Japan (-1.1%), the Netherlands (-1.2%), Switzerland (-0.7%), the United Kingdom (-0.3%) and the United States (-5.0%).

ABOUT THE GLOBAL PENSION STATISTICS PROJECT

Countries around the globed are engaged in intense pension reform efforts, often involving an increased use of funded pension programmes managed by the private sector. There is a growing need among policy makers and the regulatory community, as well as among private sector participants, to compare programme developments and experiences to those of other countries. Because funded pension arrangements are likely to play an increasingly important role in delivering retirement income security in many countries, and because the investment of pension assets will increasingly affect securities markets in future years, the availability of an accurate, comprehensive, comparable and up-to-date body of international statistics is a necessary tool for policy makers, regulators and market participants.

The Global Pension Statistics Project (GPS) was launched in 2002 by the OECD Working Party on Private Pensions and its Task Force on Pension Statistics. The GPS provides a valuable means for measuring and monitoring the pension industry. It allows inter-country comparisons of current statistics and indicators on key aspects of retirement systems across OECD and non-OECD countries. Data are collected on an ongoing basis so that trends can be readily identified and analysed. The statistics cover an extensive range of indicators and relate to a wide definition of funded and private pension plans, themselves subdivided into detailed categories using coherent statistical concepts, definitions and methodologies.

Default queries pertaining to important indicators can also be found below:

Structure of Pension SystemsPrivate pension plans can be financed through pension funds, pension insurance contracts, book reserves or other vehicles (bank or investment companies managed funds). They could be linked to an employment relationship, making them occupational pension plans, or they may be based on contracts between individuals and private pension providers, making them personal pension plans.

Pension funds: Wealth and Investments - These indicators refer to the trend in pension fund assets and asset allocation. The default queries are proposed for pension funds, therefore excluding data pertaining to book reserve systems (as they exist in Austria and Germany for example), pension insurance contracts (available in most OECD countries) and funds managed as part of financial institutions. However, the default options can be modified to comply with users' needs.

Pension funds: Operating expenses - These indicators comprise all costs arising from the general administration of the plan/fund that are treated as plan/fund expenses (i.e. administrative costs and investment management costs). The efficiency of private pension systems can be assessed by looking at the costs in relation to assets under management.

Funded pension systems in OECD countries - These country profiles, taken from the 2008 edition of the OECD Pensions Outlook, provide a brief description of the design of funded private pension systems in individual OECD countries.